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London - British police defused a bomb in an abandoned car in London's theatre district on Friday and launched a counter-terrorism investigation.
The bomb, which Sky News quoted unidentified sources as saying was "potentially massive", was found inside a light green Mercedes left outside a nightclub in the early hours of Friday, a police officer quoted witnesses as saying.
The witnesses said the occupant drove "erratically" before smashing into some bins outside the nightclub and running off. Bouncers from the nightclub investigated, saw what looked like gas canisters inside the vehicle and called the police.
Officers sealed off the area at around 2am (1pm NZ time) and found a bomb, the Metropolitan police said.
"They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe," they said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were investigating.
The discovery came hours after new Prime Minister Gordon Brown named a cabinet to succeed Tony Blair. It posed a first major challenge for Brown's administration, and particularly his new home secretary, Jacqui Smith.
Smith was to chair a meeting of the government's top emergency committee, Cobra, on Friday, Brown said.
"The first duty of a government is the security of the people and as the police and security services have said on so many occasions we face a serious and continued security threat to our country," Brown, in his third day in office, told reporters.
"This incident does recall the need for us to be vigilant at all times and the public to be alert."
Security around parliament was stepped up, with police body-searching drivers of vehicles entering the compound.
The bomb alert came almost two years after a series of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on London's transport network killed 52 commuters, the first Islamist suicide bombings in western Europe. London has frequently been on edge since.
Terrorism experts said an al Qaeda connection to the potential attack could not be dismissed.
"We couldn't rule it out," a security source said, noting that the threat from international Islamist terrorism was the main reason the official British threat level is placed at "severe", the second highest level.
"Numerically speaking, al Qaeda is a strong possibility but it just is too early to attribute specifically.
"It would be wrong and short-sighted to rule out domestic options as well. Obviously there are various extremist groups out there too," the source added.
The MI5 intelligence agency said last year it believed Islamist radicals were plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks in Britain and it was tracking some 1600 suspects.
A large area of central London around the scene, in the normally busy and popular theatre district, remained sealed off hours after the bomb was found. Officers at the scene said it could be several hours before the area was cleared.
Office workers unable to enter their buildings to start the work day milled outside, watching the police operation.
"We've been standing out here for a couple of hours," said David Way, 29, the director of a recruitment company based in the same street as where the car was abandoned. "I suspect we're going to hang around until lunchtime and see what happens."
A London Transport spokesman said Piccadilly underground station was closed and some bus services were also affected.
Haymarket is usually thronged with Londoners and tourists. It is close to Piccadilly Circus in an area packed with theatres, restaurants and pubs.
(Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Adrian Croft, Michael Holden, Katherine Baldwin)
- Reuters
